Election Grumbling Continues Cities Urge Baccus To Speed Up Counting

June 25, 1987|By Michael Lafferty of The Sentinel Staff

COCOA — Still irritated over last year's election snafus, nearly half of Brevard County's 13 city councils have passed measures recently urging the supervisor of elections to improve or change the voting system.

The Cocoa City Council is the latest to join the movement, approving a resolution Tuesday night asking for improvements that will provide election results ''on a more timely basis.''

Five other cities, including Melbourne, Palm Bay and Titusville, have approved similar measures. Three more cities -- Melbourne Beach, Malabar and Satellite Beach -- will consider resolutions in the next two weeks.

The move to improve Brevard's voting system stems from last November's election, when final returns came in as late as 2:30 a.m., hours later than most other counties.

Moreover, the certification of results from Melbourne was delayed by two days when it was discovered that the results from one precinct were missing, said Melbourne Mayor Joe Mullins, who advocates a new system.

''It was a real hassle,'' Mullins said.

Supervisor of Elections Shirley Baccus concedes there were problems during the last election.

''I'm the first to say, 'Uh-uh, that's late,' '' Baccus said.

She blames the late returns last fall on problems with the computer that counts voting cards and tabulates results. She said the computer's program is causing it to run slower than it should.

Despite pressure from the cities, Baccus plans to stick with the system but she said she is having the computer's program changed so that returns will be tabulated quicker.

Beverly Hancock, Baccus's assistant, also said her office hopes to buy two more card counters this year. Elections officials hope that with the improvement, results will be finalized no later than midnight on Election Day. Baccus blamed the cities' dissatisfaction with the voting system on Bea Polk and Ida Blickley, two north Brevard residents who have been lobbying the cities and circulating petitions calling for change.

''The action right now about the election system is being agitated by two people,'' Baccus said. ''They have been trooping to city halls with their comments.''

She also said the cities have passed the resolutions without first talking with her.

''All I know of it is when their little resolutions get to my office,'' she said. ''With their kind of concerns they ought to be talking to me.''

Most cities aren't specifying what kind of changes they want, but some officials have mentioned that the voting cards ought to be tabulated at several regional counting centers. Under the current system, the cards are transported to Titusville in north Brevard from as far away as Barefoot Bay 50 miles to the south.

Brevard County Commissioner Charlie Roberts believes the entire voting system should be scrapped in favor of a more advanced system that would tabulate votes instantly and give the public quicker results.

In addition, he and others worry that the current system is more prone to vote tampering. Roberts, a member of the canvassing board that certifies elections, said there is ''too much handling of the ballots between the time the vote is cast and when it's counted.''

Since voting booths were scrapped in 1981, Brevard voters have been using punch cards to cast their ballots, which are kept temporarily in cardboard boxes at each precinct until the polls close. Afterward, the cards are transferred into sturdier cases, which are driven to the Titusville courthouse under the supervision of elections officials and a Brevard County deputy sheriff.